Sep 28, 2009

Clemson University researchers have been awarded a $470,000 National Science Foundation grant to study making plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) more efficient to reduce fossil fuel use.

The researchers will study integrating the vehicles with infrastructure where they act as probes that generate continuous detailed traffic data, such as speed profiles and travel time in cooperation with roadside devices to optimize the total energy used. The purpose is to minimize the total cost of a trip.

The hybrid electric vehicles will work with the Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) system, also known as IntelliDrive. It's an initiative that will improve traffic operations and safety in the future by linking vehicles to their physical surroundings. The VII systems can act as probes, providing detailed traffic data of any monitored highway that can be used by roadside sensors, along with data from other sources, to provide predicted trip information to the vehicles.

"For instance, a roadside sensor could collect data on acceleration and deceleration of the vehicles and use the information to predict operational conditions," said lead investigator Ronnie Chowdhury, associate professor of civil engineering at Clemson.

He added that in this case, hybrid electric vehicles would "talk to" sensors that are set up in a road's infrastructure to improve fuel efficiency and overall costs by monitoring and predicting trip conditions.

"We're doing the study because we anticipate increases in the number of consumers who will drive PHEVs," said Chowdhury. "These electric vehicles would be integrated with a VII system that provides detailed traffic data as a person drives past points outfitted to collect data. With this information we can come up with mathematical models that predict detailed traffic conditions which will be used to optimize fuel consumption and total energy used. It will also minimize the total cost of a trip."

"We are looking at a new paradigm," said co-principal investigator Pierluigi Pisu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. "We're providing the drivers with alternative routes to maximize fuel economy instead of just improving travel time."

The researchers expect it has the potential to reduce U.S. reliance on petroleum and other greenhouse gas-producing fuels, reduce pollution, save energy, minimize the long-term cost of living expenses and improve driving conditions. Researchers will collaborate with Ford for real-world evaluation of the system integration and plan to implement results after the completion of the project.

Related Stories

Hybrid electric vehicles have saved close to 230 million gallons – or 5.5 million barrels – of fuel in the United States since their introduction in 1999, according to a recent analysis conducted at the U. S. Department ...

Xcel Energy announced the results of a six-month study related to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and how an increase in their popularity may affect Colorado. The study found that PHEVs may result in a reduction ...

Competitors in this week's Panasonic World Solar Challenge will be demonstrating some of the fundamental technical innovations driving us towards the hydrogen economy, according to event partner, CSIRO.

If all the cars and light trucks in the nation switched from oil to electrons, idle capacity in the existing electric power system could generate most of the electricity consumed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. A new ...

A new software tool that compares the costs and emissions of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) to conventional vehicles is now available for government and business fleet managers interested in reducing fuel costs and protecting ...

Recommended for you

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have launched the Clean Energy Incubator Network. The program, funded by the Energy Department, aims to ...

Manufacturers of battery electric vehicles, or BEVs, have increased their offerings in response to rising consumer concerns over gas prices and the environment. Drivers have been slow to adopt BEVs due to ...

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has unveiled an interactive infographic that tracks the number and history of nuclear weapons in the nine nuclear weapon states: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, C ...

About 15 million wood-fired stoves and combustion systems exist in Germany, including central-heating boilers for apartment houses. They are subject to strict clean air regulations. New wood-fired boilers ...

If Marc Secanell Gallart had his way, the streets would be filled with hydrogen-fuelled vehicles. The technology already exists, and has for some time, says the director of the University of Alberta's Energy Systems Design ...

User comments : 0

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript.
In order to enable it, please see these instructions.